Lowell wind project: Truck and trailer crash off access road, driver OK The Caledonian-Record - Robin Smith - January 15, 2014 Safety Vermont A tractor trailer carrying a boom used to repair a wind turbine blade on Lowell Mountain slid off the steep wind project access road and down an embankment Monday afternoon. The driver of the truck was assisted by members of the Lowell Fire Department ...This is the second accident involving a large truck and trailer carrying large parts for the wind project. LOWELL -- A tractor trailer carrying a boom used to repair a wind turbine blade on Lowell Mountain slid off the steep wind project access road and down an embankment Monday afternoon. The driver of the truck, who works for JPW Riggers of Syracuse, N.Y., was assisted by members of the Lowell Fire Department and taken to North Country Hospital in Newport City. He was treated and released and was already home with his family, Green Mountain Power spokesman Dorothy Schnure said Tuesday. She did not have information about his name and hometown. The truck trailer was headed down the mountain early Monday afternoon with the boom on board, which was used as part of a large crane to raise a repaired blade into place on one of the 21 wind turbines on the mountain ridgeline. The tractor trailer was linked by chain to a bulldozer following behind -- with the dozer intended to steady and slow the pace of the truck and trailer down the steep and winding access road, Schnure said. The truck was at a point between the top of the access road and the operations center halfway down when the accident occurred. One of the trailer wheels hit the soft shoulder of the gravel access road and the trailer started to slide off the road, dragging the truck with it. The bulldozer operator saw what was happening and dropped the dozer blade, disconnecting his rig from the sliding truck and trailer, keeping the dozer on the road, Schnure said. The trailer and truck slid and then rolled over down the short embankment, Schnure said. Someone on the mountain called 911, prompting the Lowell Fire Department to respond, Schnure said. When they arrived, they found the driver out of the truck and walking around, she said. They secured him to a backboard as a safety precaution to help him up the embankment. The truck was severely damaged although the trailer was in better condition, Schnure said. The boom will have to be examined to see if it had damage. There did not appear to be any problem with the road conditions. The shoulder was soft. Schnure said state police were not called to the accident on private property. The turbine blade that was repaired had been struck and damaged by lightning last year. This is the second accident involving a large truck and trailer carrying large parts for the wind project. In the summer of 2012, a truck trailer rolled onto its side on Interstate 91 near the Orleans southbound exit when a trailer wheel got off the asphalt and onto the soft shoulder. That accident shut down the southbound lane for part of the next day while the wind turbine tower section, truck and trailer were recovered. Source: caledonianrecord...
Posted on: Wed, 15 Jan 2014 23:52:42 +0000
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